South Africa's Vodacom and MTN plan on buying-out subscribers signed with Nashua mobile in a R2.2bn deal this is in a bid to provide the telecoms subscribers sustainable mobile package which Nashua Mobile admits to lack.

Following an expiry of the service provider agreement between Nashua Mobile and Vodacom as well as the incentive agreement between MTN and Nashua Mobile under the MTN service provider agreement, boards of Reurnert and Nashua Mobile were required to consider the long-term prospects for Nashua Mobile which was found not to generate acceptable returns.

Reunert said Nashua Mobile was pursuing various alternatives for the disposal by its Cell C subscriber base. MTN would pay 90% of disposal consideration on MTN take-on date, with the balance being settled within 10 days and Vodacom supposed to pay 85% disposal consideration within five business days of its migration date and the balance cleared within five days after confirmation of Vodacom's success bill run.

"Nashua Mobile has been a great partner for the past 20 years and we respect their decision. We're looking forward to the opportunity of managing this customer base directly and will be focusing on ensuring a seamless handover,"said Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub.

Subscribers will now have to deal with Vodacom directly. Telecom operators have been under pressure in recent weeks following an enormous cut on interconnection fees, which have been cut in half despite a declaration by High court that the new regulations were unlawful.